IJersey City Mayor Steven Fulop in a separate Twitter message called the incident "horrible" and said the car was being pursued by the Hudson County Sheriff's Department.

A witness told the Jersey Journal that they heard what sounded like a loud explosion and saw a body lying on the street. The newspaper said it viewed surveillance video from a 7-Eleven store that recorded the crash that showed the impact which also appeared to be an explosion.

Witnesses told the paper that police didn't realize the driver of the SUV struck a pedestrian until they let the officers know.

"If we didn't say something, nobody would have known that body was there," the report quotes David King, one of the witnesses, saying.

The NJ.com report said multiple moving and parked cars were hit throughout the chase.

It wasn't clear from initial reports and statements by authorities what prompted the police chase, or what charges the driver of the SUV may face.